On the day after Mayor Jerry Sanders' last state of the city address, the runoff opponent he defeated in his first campaign ended her 13-month hiatus away from public life.
While taking a break from the stage of local politics, tending to business and major home remodeling projects, former city councilwoman Donna Frye has kept her eye on city governance issues.
But she didn't make a point of watching Sanders' "Closing the Deal" speech Wednesday night, missing his dramatic entrance to "Hell's Bells" -- Trevor Hoffman's theme music coming out of the bullpen -- and a slick, civic-image video underwritten by corporate sponsors.
Frye offers only faint praise for the lame-duck mayor.
"I like him, but I did not vote for him for mayor," she says, carefully, before issuing a raucous laugh.
Frye and Sanders first crossed swords in 2005, when she topped a field of 11 special-primary election candidates to replace ex-Mayor Dick Murphy, with a 43 percent showing.
Sanders, who finished second, 16 points behind, won by nearly 8 in their November runoff.
Frye was termed out of her 6th District Council office in December, 2010, and stayed under 'media radar' until Thursday morning, when she appeared in Serra Mesa to endorse the candidacy of Mat Kostrinsky -- a former aide to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein -- for the newly redrawn 7th District Council seat.
It just so happens that one of Kostrinsky's opponents, Scott Sherman, has been endorsed by Sanders.
While Frye and Sanders both were at City Hall, her office one floor below his, their respective agendas and staffs didn't often mesh.
Asked how things might have been different had she been mayor instead, Frye cited contrasts in their approaches to 'people' issues:
"I probably would've been listening to different voices. And I think that the people that I would have met with would probably be much different than the people our current mayor meets with.” she said. "I would have liked the same amount of attention paid to the communities as is paid to downtown, because so much of the focus is on downtown."
Frye takes special exception to Sanders having ignored legal advice from the city attorney in the process of allowing the recent, temporary stadium name-switch from Qualcomm to Snapdragon.
Sanders explained he did so for "the greater public good".
"Arrogance and abuse of power," Frye calls it.
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